In the formation of a cable from several strands of wire or fibre optic material, the strands have heretofore been taken from a plurality of supplies and usually these supplies are in a rigid strander or closer without pay-off neutralizers. With this system, back twist in the strands will occur as they are brought into twist relation in the cable. If the strands have any back twist, the cable will be distorted and in some cases where the strands are small in diameter, such as in optic fibre cable, breaking is frequent. Usually also the individual units, such as the supply, are not driven and it is difficult to maintain a balanced relation between the strands as twisted and the back twist which occurs in the strands as they are drawn from the supplies. Further, the closer is also a substantially individual unit which may be driven at a different speed than the other units and some compensation must be provided.